diff --git a/configs/config.dev.yaml b/configs/config.dev.yaml
index 10c4c408..8516312f 100644
--- a/configs/config.dev.yaml
+++ b/configs/config.dev.yaml
@@ -135,6 +135,23 @@ sender:
   ## slaves to be cycled through
   is_master: True
 
+  # default_rate_def:
+  #   # how many messages in a period before they are dropped
+  #   hard_limit: 30
+  #   # how many messages in a period before notification is sent out
+  #   soft_limit: 20
+  #   # period length for hard limit
+  #   hard_duration: 1
+  #   # period length for soft limit
+  #   soft_duration: 1
+  #   # time to wait before messages can be created again
+  #   wait_time: 3600
+  #   # target that will receive notification for soft quota breaches
+  #   target_name: foo_team
+  #   target_role: team
+  #   # plan for incident that will be raised if there is a hard quota breach
+  #   plan_name: bar_plan
+
 #slaves:
 #  - host: 127.0.0.1
 #    port: 2322
diff --git a/src/iris/bin/sender.py b/src/iris/bin/sender.py
index 007ba26f..fb6565d4 100644
--- a/src/iris/bin/sender.py
+++ b/src/iris/bin/sender.py
@@ -1695,7 +1695,7 @@ def init_sender(config):
         }]
 
     global quota
-    quota = ApplicationQuota(db, cache.targets_for_role, message_send_enqueue, config['sender'].get('sender_app'))
+    quota = ApplicationQuota(db, cache.targets_for_role, message_send_enqueue, config['sender'].get('sender_app'), config['sender'].get('default_rate_def', {}))
 
     global coordinator
     zk_hosts = config['sender'].get('zookeeper_cluster', False)
diff --git a/src/iris/sender/quota.py b/src/iris/sender/quota.py
index e0a304f0..5421efbb 100644
--- a/src/iris/sender/quota.py
+++ b/src/iris/sender/quota.py
@@ -59,8 +59,22 @@
 
 class ApplicationQuota(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, db, expand_targets, message_send_enqueue, sender_app):
+    def __init__(self, db, expand_targets, message_send_enqueue, sender_app, rate_configs):
         self.db = db
+        # configure default rate limiting params for messages
+        hard_limit = rate_configs.get('hard_limit', 6000)
+        soft_limit = rate_configs.get('soft_limit', 600)
+        hard_duration = rate_configs.get('hard_duration', 1)
+        soft_duration = rate_configs.get('soft_duration', 1)
+        wait_time = rate_configs.get('wait_time', 3600)
+        plan_name = rate_configs.get('plan_name', None)
+        target_name = rate_configs.get('target_name', None)
+        target_role = rate_configs.get('target_role', None)
+        target = None
+        if target_name and target_role:
+            target = (target_name, target_role)
+        self.default_rate_def = (hard_limit, soft_limit, hard_duration, soft_duration, wait_time, plan_name, target)
+
         self.expand_targets = expand_targets
         self.message_send_enqueue = message_send_enqueue
         self.iris_application = None
@@ -95,6 +109,11 @@ def refresh(self):
             for application, hard_limit, soft_limit, hard_duration, soft_duration, target_name, target_role, plan_name, wait_time in self.get_new_rules():
                 new_rates[application] = (hard_limit, soft_limit, hard_duration // 60, soft_duration // 60, wait_time, plan_name, (target_name, target_role))
 
+            # for any application that does not have a quota defined set it to a default value
+            for app in iris.cache.applications:
+                if not new_rates.get(app):
+                    new_rates[app] = self.default_rate_def
+
             old_keys = self.rates.keys()
             new_keys = new_rates.keys()
 
@@ -163,8 +182,9 @@ def allow_send(self, message):
 
         if hard_quota_usage > hard_limit:
             metrics.incr('quota_hard_exceed_cnt')
-            with self.last_incidents_mutex:
-                self.notify_incident(application, hard_limit, len(hard_buckets), plan_name, wait_time)
+            if plan_name:
+                with self.last_incidents_mutex:
+                    self.notify_incident(application, hard_limit, len(hard_buckets), plan_name, wait_time)
             return False
 
         # If soft limit breached, just notify owner and still send
@@ -177,8 +197,9 @@ def allow_send(self, message):
 
         if soft_quota_usage > soft_limit:
             metrics.incr('quota_soft_exceed_cnt')
-            with self.last_soft_quota_notification_time_mutex:
-                self.notify_target(application, soft_limit, len(soft_buckets), *target)
+            if target:
+                with self.last_soft_quota_notification_time_mutex:
+                    self.notify_target(application, soft_limit, len(soft_buckets), *target)
             return True
 
         return True
diff --git a/test/test_sender.py b/test/test_sender.py
index 556e9abe..55605ee7 100644
--- a/test/test_sender.py
+++ b/test/test_sender.py
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ def test_quotas(mocker):
                  )])
     mocker.patch('iris.sender.quota.ApplicationQuota.notify_incident')
     mocker.patch('iris.sender.quota.ApplicationQuota.notify_target')
-    quotas = ApplicationQuota(None, None, None, None)
+    quotas = ApplicationQuota(None, None, None, None, {})
     sleep(1)
 
     # ensure drop messages don't count